CLEVELAND — Former Astros manager Brad Mills appears invigorated these days. A playoff race clearly suits him. He seems refreshed by the Cleveland Indians’ wild-card chase after nearly three years of losing baseball in Houston.

Although he still hopes to manage in the majors again, Mills is enjoying his time as Terry Francona’s third-base coach.

“A lot of times you get beat down,” Mills said Thursday, before the Indians beat the Astros 2-1 in 11 innings. “I think that you step into a situation, whether it’s a new situation or what, and you’re always maybe invigorated.

“But no, I’m fine. I think a lot of it has to do with the people you’re with, working with and working around and working for and so forth. That helps.

“There’s a lot of good people in Houston. It was a great challenge, and now the challenges here are a little bit different. But at the same time, they’re still challenges. I’m invigorated to try to get after those.”

If Mills holds any resentment toward the Astros, he hides it well. The Astros’ roster has changed dramatically since he was let go 13 months ago, but a handful of his players remain.

Heck, Mills owns a bucking bull named after second baseman Jose Altuve. He wanted to pass along good wishes to infielders Brett Wallace and Matt Dominguez and even wondered if general manager Jeff Luhnow was on the trip, noting he had hoped to say hello to his old boss.

“There’s still a lot of people in the organization that I’m pretty fond of,” Mills said. “Because I spent three years there and worked with the guys and tried to get them better, you watch them a little bit and see how they’re doing.

“But I can’t say that we’ve been texting. They’ve got their situation now, and the last thing I’d want to do is interfere with that.”

Friendship began in ’77

Mills is happy to be reunited with Francona, a man he has known since he was a sophomore and Francona was a freshman at the University of Arizona in 1977.

Mills was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 17th round of the 1979 draft. The Expos drafted Francona a year later. They roomed together in the early 1980s at Class AAA Denver and again during parts of the 1981, 1982 and 1983 seasons with the Expos.

Offered an opportunity to coach in the majors by the Colorado Rockies in 1997, Mills instead went to the Philadelphia Phillies to be Francona’s bench coach from 1997-2000. Mills also was Francona’s bench coach with the Boston Red Sox from 2004 until taking the Astros job after the 2009 season.

In Boston, they won a pair of World Series titles together, helping the Red Sox end the so-called Curse of the Bambino. After he was hired to manage the Indians last winter, Francona didn’t waste much time adding Mills to his staff.

“We’ve been together since 1977,” Francona said. “He knows probably what I’m going to do before I do it and reverse. He’s one of my closest friends on the field and off. I feel like he’s kind of like my big older brother. It’s a blessing to have him and his experience on this staff.

“He’s always been a great coach. When he became a manager, it made him that much better. You can’t get a better coach.”

Astros job a tough gig

Former Astros owner Drayton McLane was attracted by Mills’ résumé partly because of what he helped Francona accomplish in Boston. McLane turned to Mills after Manny Acta spurned the Astros’ offer to manage the Indians instead.

Now Mills is in Cleveland with Francona, who was hired after Acta was fired. Mills was 171-274 with the Astros, who began tearing up the club by trading Hunter Pence and Roy Oswalt in his first season.

An argument can be made that Mills was never really given an opportunity to succeed in Houston. Regardless, he hopes for a second chance to manage in the majors.

“I would like to (manage),” he said. “I think the experiences that were gained, gone through, what five or six months with Jeff as a GM and then those couple of years with Ed (Wade) … I think that’s all good experiences.

“Going through different owners, different GMs and having different coaches to work with and so forth, I think those are all experiences that have helped people in the past improve and get better.